The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-04-09
EASTER MEDITATIONs.
l.. L. B.

trine which surrounded the original
keeping of Easter, and the fixing of it's
day of celebration, nor asking whether
old Bishop Polycrates of Ephesus, or
Victor, Bishop of Rome, was right, it is
enough for us that Easter is celebrated
at all-Easter, the mother and queen
of, festivals, and perhaps the Oldest of
all in the church calendar, once canoni-
cally known as the Great day, as to all
who accept the Christian faith it can
hardly otherwise be accepted now.
The policy of the early Christian
fathers, it is well known, was to observe
their own days of note upon already
existing days Of note in the established
form of religion which theirs was sup
planting. But the Paschal Offering
was celebrated from such gray begin
ming, and in remote regions, that it is
probably only an interesting coincidence
that among Teutonic peoples the COM
memoration fell upon day honored by
our own immediate ancestors as the fes-
tival of the Saxon goddess of spring,
the fair Eostre-whence our word Eas-
ter. Whether the day is kept outside
the temples of worship, as with those
of the Greek church, by kisses of peace
and salutations between all passers on
the street, OR as in parts of England
with rude games andIthe boiling of Pace
eggs by the children; or as in the Tyrol
| by bands of flower. decked MINISTRIES
strolling from valley to valley, and call :
| ing the people to the doors to join in
| the choruses, or as in Rome with all the
| splendor of illuminations-it is also al
ways and everywhere kept by mere
force of nature as becomes the festival
of the resurrection from death, Of the
Lord Of all nature. eve were slaves
in Egypt" says the father of the He
brew family at the feast of the Pass
over, land the Lord our God brought
US out with a mighty hand and stretch
ed-out arm"
And not only religiously may we re-
peat his words, but typically and poeti-
cally also, especisf1y in our austere
Northern climates, where through the
long dark months of winter we have
been slaves in Egypt, till the heart and
the soul rise in recognition of the power
that leads US forth and sets US free.
Even the infdel must acknowledge
with the returning life of tree and sod,
the active effect of existing law and
law can be but the expression of will
and if will exists, then deity is its other
name. Now is Christ risen from the
dead And all the life and strength
and beauty of the sphere rises with
him, accompanies and surrounds the
wonder Now under this April moon
the flowers stir in their calls, and the
sap runs up the roots; the rivers roll
down their freshets; we have heard the
whistle of the birds ere they begin to
build; the bee comes laundering out;
we note some trembling wings break
ing the sheath; here creeps nerveless
fly; the grass is seen, the never-dying
grass; nature, that slept, makes resur-
rection too, and leads US on toward
summer.
There is suggestiveness more beauti-
full than words can express in this open
ing of the budding year with the Easter
joyousness; it is as if the earth itself,
new winged and clothed in gladness,
took an upward path through the inf
mite spaces, as if the old planet, too, had
had its part in worship, and at any rate
in the irresponsible innocence of that
sort of worship which springs from joy
full acquieseence in the order of things.
After Easter how soon are the fields
''all one emerald" the orchards like
drifted snow, like clouds of heaven
with their fruit-blooms; will a bank
shine golden with buttercups, darken
purple with violets, theIoak above tow
er callow as a gosling in its earliest
plumage, the lime be all one glitter Of
rubies and emeralds in its glistening
buds, veil of neither lucid grays nor
tender green hang like vapor over all
the landscape, sunshine alternate with
silver showers Aud in our hearts
as well, the sun shall shine, and every
old man feel him young again. And
how soon too will not the Easter chants
and choruses lead in the singing of the
birds-birds, which, if among them is
not the nightingale,
That crowds and hurries and precipitates
With fast thick MARBLE his delicious notes,
AS he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for aim to utter forth
His lore chant and disburden his full soul
OF all its music"
can yet, so does their song move the
heart, be hardly less sweet than the
birds which old Izaak Walton heard
when he said, Lord, what music hast
Thou provided for the saints in heaven,
when Thou affOrdest bad men such mu-
sic on earth 20
With the soul at peace with heaven,
the heart fixed in faith, one marvels |
how any can be of other than good !